Prof. Gordon H. Clark Declares Its Dismissal by Presbyterians Was Illegal
11 Here Were Accused
A protest that charges of heresy against eleven Presbyterian clergymen here were dropped in an illegal manner is made by professor Gordon H. Clark, of the University of Pennsylvania and a Presbyterian elder.
Professor Clark, who is an instructor in philosophy, is the son of the Rev. David S. Clark, minister of Bethel Presbyterian Church, 19th and York sts.
He predicts that the heresy charges against the eleven local signers of the Auburn Affirmation will be revived at the next meeting of the Presbytery in January.
The protest of illegality is based by Professor Clark on the statement that a motion to refer the heresy charges to the Committee on Judicial Business had passed, and then, after some of the members had left the Presbytery, it was brought up again and failed to pass. He further charges that the accused men had voted on their own cases.
"The five points involved," says Professor Clark, "are the value of the Holy Scripture, the truth of the Virgin Birth, the performance of miracles, Christ's sacrifice on Calvary to satisfy Divine justice and reconcile us to God, and last, His Resurrection."
He charges that some of the signers of the Auburn Affirmation believe some of these doctrines but "all deny the inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures." He continues: "There are in the Presbyterian Church two mutually exclusive religions fighting the supremacy. (The Fundamentalist and Modernist.) One is Christianity and one is not. It is claimed that a statement of this sort and charges of heresy disrupt the peace of the Church. Certainly the orthodox men of the Church did not start this.
"When two antagonistic religions are engaged in a death struggle, there will be no peace without purity. Some of the mean whose heretical teaching is running our church may really be Christians, temporarily entangled in the deceiver's net. We pray for their rescue and return to the Book.
"Charges of such a serious nature as have been made against the signers of the Auburn Affirmation are not to be brushed aside by illegal un-Christian tactics. You will find that these charges still have a great deal of life in them.
"We feel that the reformation of the Presbyterian Church, with its modernism and indifferentism, is possible only through the successful prosecution of these charges. Only thus can unity, purity and true peace be restored. It will take trouble, it will cause trouble; but to avoid this sort of trouble will mean peace with paganism."
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